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  Location: USA

  Remote: No preference

  Willing to relocate: Yes, to any major US city

  Technologies: JS, Linux, AWS, blockchain, Three.js (see resume)
  
  Resume: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qMnCVQbl65PkN9xfd_LNKGwVq62SfDa6EDKjetxKVCg

  Email: resume4@mailcyr.(USA TLD)
I'm your technical co-founder. Send your ideas.


ZZ Top figured this out a long time ago.


I recently found this video of Billy Gibbons performing in the street in Helsinki without anyone noticing. I like that he becomes less recognizable when not wearing sunglasses.

https://youtu.be/YHUQNxggT_k


Lebron James. I thought for sure he was gonna crash and burn after the absolutely insane hype.


"non-guitarist Mom of skeptical daughter who didn't want or ask for Thingamagig but 'hey it's free'" is not our market, though. Thus, it is not a valid read on "market reception".

Actual market reception is positive: https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R14HJYCSIBF2R8

The whole point of my post is that Vine is pushing units onto the wrong people and for the wrong reasons and that others in my shoes should avoid it. I.e. I'm admitting an error using Vine at all.


The customer persona of "Mom getting something to support her daughter to be musical" is valid though, particularly considering teaching is one of the use cases.


I guess that raises a question -- if there was a better version of Amazon Vine, how much would you pay to use it?


On the first point, Amazon should strictly prohibit gifting free Vine items to others. It is inherently antithetical.

On the second point, no. I don't think it's possible to give free items to people and get honest reviews. The free-ness will often induce either charity or laziness in reviewers. The only way to get an accurate review on a product at its price point is to sell the item at its price point in the wild.


You may want to chalk this up as a lesson about positioning and price anchoring well learned. But with that said, it doesn't change the fact that your response as a brand to what is honestly a very minor setback was alarmingly disproportional and customer hostile. What would you do if you get hypothetically successful and Behringer rips you? What if you tore into the wrong reviewer and they put you on blast to their 80k twitter followers to get you de-platformed? There are a million ways your product can get torn to shreds even if people /like/ it. Is this really the hill you want to die on?


This blog post was about Amazon Vine. Not Thingamagig.


It is also the most free eyeballs your product is ever going to get. Start off with an intro paragraph like "Our new widget, available now on Amazon, is the easiest way to toast bread in the morning without starting a kitchen fire! If you like toast..."

Also helps to put the rest of your rant in context. I know nothing about guitars, so I immediately think someone's kid who knows how to play is more qualified than I am to say your product sucks. Why not?


I agree with this 100%. I don't really play guitar and it took me a while to figure what the heck I was reading about. Would also add that this blogpost would be greatly improved by having a link to the homepage.


While I think you're correct, I find it funny that you are in effect complaining that a Hacker News article is NOT an advertisement poorly disguised as an information article or an opinion piece.


I really don't think having a small summary blurb saying what the heck you're talking about counts as advertising.


I thought about this and it's a good point. Maybe there is a carve-out for folks who can't review on their own - like elder care products or kids toys. But this is not that.


Why isn't this that? It definitely looks like that


Is "susie" not anonymized enough for you? I blacked out her email address. There's no picture.


No? Susie has written 598 reviews. I think it is quite possible that

1) people within the "Amazon reviewing community" know her (by her online identity, and maybe also her offline identity)

2) friends/family recognize her profile, maybe because she has sent links to articles she reviewed, or because she shared an Amazon wishlist ...

3) it is possible to get her personal identity from information disclosed in her almost 600 reviews (maybe including pictures?).

Of course you did not share super critical information, and of course you did not write the billing address next to it. But it worries me that you choose to disclose any personal information at all for no good reason. Feels like a violation of trust.


You seem to be blaming other people for things, maybe learn to swallow your ego and take criticism better. Certainly with this comment and your blogpost you are not taking feedback well, instead blaming the people giving it. Stewart Lee as a joke often blames his audience for not understanding the genius of his comedy, this seems similar except it’s not funny.


I have made dozens of improvements to Thingamagig based on valid user feedback.

On the first, am I supposed to improve based on something the user's kids said without trying the product?

On the second, what exactly did she complain about aside from "hardware improvements"? I'll make the changes. But what are they, exactly?


Building startups and finding product market fit is really hard, I suggest that if you’re this annoyed at such a small issue you’re going become very annoyed at all the failures you need to have to make something people want. I would love to know about what you are building though...


Early reviews are critical to a product's trajectory. Of course I'm going to get upset about Vine giving my free guitar product to non-guitarists who turn around and leave poor reviews. It's absurd.

What do you want to know about the product? This is the best primer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9haR4CCeh9o


Wow that’s so cool, I was thinking about something similar for piano midi, seems pretty sad that the best piano sounds are reserved for more expensive pianos. I agree about initial reviews being difficult to deal with. Maybe this is the wrong route and you need to work with the biggest electric guitar YouTubers first? If you get them onside you’re golden I’d say. Good luck!


July 21st was when I had the "ok I have to pursue this for real" moment and it's been 24/7 coding and tinkering since then. I really need to go for a walk or something.


That's a fair amount of tinkering time. Go for a walk, and enjoy the milestone. I'll check this out sometime soon.


Give thingamagig a shot. I think you'll find that voice-control is faaaaaar from a gimmick. I have kicked my feet up and lost hours jamming along from track to track. The frictionlessness of it is really something.

Also, you seem to know quite a bit about the market. Would you be willing to talk? Email me at cyrus@ my product's domain name.


I thought about this too. Multiple choice A, B, C, etc... just play the chord. :)

But that's pretty challenging from an engineering standpoint and Alexa skills can't be controlled externally yet. I briefly added a footswitch and could get Thingamagig to cycle through the tones of a particular song with it, but the Alexa screen won't update on that "outside" information.

Amazon has said they'll consider it but my gut says that's way down the list of things they're trying to do.


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